Looking Back: Whine.

Last night at the gym, I needed to grab a swig of juice before my cardio workout, so I reached into my gym bag and fished out the questionably-old bottle of juice from its depths. Thankfully, this potentially ancient bottle of juice tasted fine, but I was reminded of a post from a few years ago, when the juice went all wine trail on me.

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I woke up high this morning, thanks to a late-night snack of quinoa that didn't get into my system fully until well after I'd gone to bed. Pre-bedtime test was 94 mg/dl, but I woke up at 7:30 am with a full bladder, sweaters on the ol' teeth, a backache, small ketones, and a blood sugar of 298 mg/dl. I cranked in a correction bolus and went about getting ready for work.

I don't usually fall fast after highs. It takes me about two hours to really settle back into a steadier range, and sometimes longer to even start the blood sugar tumble. So I showered, reconnected the pump, got dressed in a hurry, and shuffled my almost-always-late ass out the door. Mind you, only 38 minutes had passed from the time I bolused.

Got to work, turned on my computer, and started picking through my work emails. But I had that feeling of foggy distraction - the sound of a coworker tapping her fingers against the keys were resonating in my brain too loudly. And I clicked on "new" about three times before realizing that I was trying to "reply" to an email instead. Brain was malfunctioning. So I tested, knowing something was up.

Or down, since the result was 53 mg/dl and falling fast.

I reached into my small, compact work bag (lie: the bag is enormous and I'll end up deformed from carrying around so much unnecessary crap) and pulled out a bottle of juice I'd had stashed for a few weeks. It was a bottle I used at the gym once before and just refilled for an emergency. I twisted off the cap and heard a distinct hiss, like I woke up an angry grape juice rattle snake.

Juice doesn't normally hiss, does it?

I gave the contents a quick sniff and realized that the grape juice had fermented and was now spoiled and closer to "wine" than "reaction treater." Thankfully, I had a can of juice in the fridge at work, so a quick pull helped elevate my blood sugar.

Kerri, take note (from yourself in third person): Juice becomes wine when you have it go from hot to cold a million times. No juice when you're low becomes whine. Though the pun is delightful, stick with glucose tabs, okay? They're less apt to spoil.

I rarely (if ever) use juice to treat lows. I bring a juice box downstairs when I go on the ol' treadmill, but even then I don't usually need it. I have an obsession with winkies, though, and I use them instead of glucose tabs. They, too, never spoil, never freeze, and they taste good-like candy! (Maybe because they _are_ candy?) My only complaint is that if I let them get battered around for too long inside my bag or my meter case, the packaging rips and then I have sugar dust all over everything!

A couple of years ago, my wife woke up to find me low enough that she called in the pros. By the time the ambulance arrived she had already given me something and I was starting to show signs of life. The paramedics tested me and decided I needed more. So my wife pulled a bottle of no-preservatives juice out of the fridge that had been in there for a very long time. This bottle had a best-before date on it. One of the paramedics opened the bottle and handed it to me (still lying in bed). I took a sip and almost threw up. It had passed the fermentation stage and was now nearing penicillin. Unfortunately I wasn't yet able to communicate but I knew exactly how this was going to play out. The 3 of them stood at the foot of the bed and prodded me to drink up. After each beautiful sip I was given great encouragement from the group like I was a baby taking my first steps. They made me force down every last drop of that horrific substance. I waited until the dudes were gone before telling my wife about the state of the juice. Surprisingly, my stomach was fine!

I was going through Bean's stash from school yesterday...and noticed the juices had expired in March...yikes! Glad she always carries a 'good' one in her little backpack that's always with her. Don't think they ever thought to get her one from the nurse's stash or classroom stash...now I'm kinda happy they didn't. :)

I'm a new reader here. Just learned about your blog today and I am really enjoying reading old posts! I have lived most of my life in a city of about a quarter of a million people and don't know any other pumpers personally and only a small handful of diabetics so coming here and reading all that you've written and so many fellow diabetics and pumpers is so refreshing! I haven't ever really had the opportunity to talk to people who really, truly understand what it's like living with this disease. My hubby found some of the posts really interesting too, since he gets to put up with me going loopy low from time to time as well. On another note, I generally use those gummy lifesavers for lows. When I was a kid my mom carried the hard ones for me but those can be hard to chew down in a hurry when you're all panicky and sweaty and weak.

I will definitely be continuing to read here in the future! You're in my google reader!